Tuesday, 19 July 2016

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecast for UK growth next year after warning that the decision to leave the EU has damaged the British economy’s short-term prospects and “thrown a spanner in the works” of the global recovery…

Oh noes! Sticking with Project Fear. So what does the IMF suggest?

Policymakers in the UK and the rest of the EU have a vital role to play in reducing uncertainty, the IMF said. “Of primary importance is a smooth and predictable transition to a new set of post-exit trading and financial relationships that as much as possible preserves gains from trade between the UK and the EU.”

Well, duh.

That's what everybody wants, Leavers and Remainers alike. Mainstream opinion here appears to be that we are quite happy to remain in the tariff-free Single Market in both directions, it's just that - for whatever reason - we don't like unrestricted free movement of people from certain EU member states, and quite understandably don't like chipping in £12 billion a year for Eurocrats and subsidies for agricultural landowners in other EU member states (insanely, the pol's are happy to subsidise UK farm land owners, many of whom are not UK resident, of course…)

It's only the top bods at the EU and the French who want to teach us a lesson and throw a spanner in the works. So go and have a chat with them, eh?

Its a bit rich calling it Project Fear! Whipping up blind panic and fear of immigrants at the behest of a political party (UKIP) whose leader can't get elected to the House of Commons is the real Project Fear.So now we are out of an international Free Trade Area which quite logically has rules about freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and workers and into the bargain have created a mob in being of voters who are quite openly fascist.(And not incidentally are, age wise, retired or about to retire and look to the government to keep increasing their housing wealth as per arrangement and so are completely oblivious to all talk of wages and employment.)

JH, yes, that will be the fun part. When all the ex-EU member states get together, have a friendly chat, strike a few sensible deals and realise that the whole EU shebang was entirely superfluous.

DBC, I refer you toB's comments.

G, are they still pumping out that crap? They've left it a month too late "Nobody move or your strawberries get it!" A highly overrated fruit anyway if you ask me, although I am impressed by how big they are compared to when I was a kid, they are as big as plums nowadays.